Spiritual warfare is a deeply personal and spiritually charged experience for Christians.
At its core, it is the ongoing struggle between the forces of God and Satan in the spiritual realm, where Christians find themselves embroiled in an ancient battle. This battle manifests in various forms, including temptation, doubt and spiritual attacks, all aimed at testing one’s faith and resolve in the hopes of causing them to fall away from God.
To shed light on this profoundly intimate aspect of faith, Bill Wiese, the founder of Soul Choice Ministries and the author of the best-selling book “23 Minutes in Hell,” sat down with Charisma media to discuss the personal effects of spiritual warfare.
Through his extraordinary personal experience and unwavering commitment to sharing his story, Bill offers invaluable insights into the challenges and triumphs of spiritual warfare faced by Christians in their everyday lives.
Particularly, when something bad happens in a believer’s life, there is oftentimes a knee-jerk reaction to blame it on the devil.
Wiese cautions that it is not always the devil who is behind these events however, but instead a lack of biblical wisdom.
“Most of the time, it is our own lack of knowledge, lack of obedience, to the Word of God or just flat out not doing what the Word of God tells us. Not hearing what the Holy Spirit tells us,” explains Wiese.
Reading from 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Wiese shares that Christians need to be focused on a more personal battle, not focused solely on tearing down citywide strongholds, but taking control of our imagination and refusing to give the devil a place in our minds.
“The warfare is casting down imaginations. So, the devil comes with these thoughts, doubts unbelief of the Word of God, and we have to cast down those doubts, because it is an attack on our faith,” Wiese says.
“So, when the devil comes, we have to know what the Word says to resist him, and have him go. It’s the casting down imaginations, that is the real warfare. Getting the Word in our heart, and so many Christians don’t really read the Word. So, it’s [the Word] not down in their hearts,” he adds.
Without the Spirit-inspired Scriptures rooted within our hearts, Wiese says that we are not equipped to handle the attacks of the devil when they inevitably come.
“If we do not have the Word…then the devil is not going to flee. We won’t know what to say [when] sickness comes or disease tries to hit your body. We have to combat that with the words they know [Scripture]. …That’s the resistance,” says Wiese.
Spiritual warfare, in this case, is no different than conventional warfare in the physical realm. Armies do not enter the battlefield without equipment, training and the necessary weapons to overcome their enemies. To do so in the spiritual realm against the most dangerous enemy humankind has ever faced, is more than folly, but it is spiritual suicide just as it would be to charge an enemy stronghold in a t-shirt, shorts and water pistol.
One of the driving factors that incapacitates both spiritual and physical warriors is fear. This is a tactic the enemy uses to keep Christians from ever even engaging in spiritual warfare, and allows him to win a battle without ever firing a proverbial “shot.”
“I experienced that [fear] in hell,” recalls Wiese. “It’s all the horrors in hell that you have no angels to protect you, no God to pray to. The fear is beyond anything we can imagine.
“It’s the devil that tries to place fear on us all the time. Look what we saw with COVID. So many Christians wouldn’t even go to church…they’re so afraid. What about the Word of God? What about standing on the Word and saying, ‘No. This is not going to bother me. I’m going to church.’ So that spirit of fear is real,” Wiese continues.
Laying out some of the best weaponry Christians can equip in their spiritual loadouts, Wiese says the battleplan must be led with obedience to God’s Word.
“I’m not talking about performance. I’m talking about obedience, simple things like honor your parents…honor your wife…give to the poor [and tithe],” shares Wiese.
“So being submitted to God is being obedient to all of His Word, not just picking out the things you like,” he continues.
By submitting ourselves before the Lord, and genuinely wanting to please, honor and glorify Him through our actions, we open ourselves up to the best equipment available in our battle against the devil and his minions: the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
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James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
Katie Souza